Minutes of June 7, 2001

[Approved 7/19/01]

Present: Bob Boisselle, Paul Locke, Peter Mortimer, Nancy Naslas Bruce Rider, David Valade

Voted: To accept the minutes of 5/17/01.

Bob: All commissioners should read the minutes before the meeting and pass any comments on to the secretary.

Voted: that we have one copy of the minutes on hand for any member who does not read it on the computer before the meeting..

The transfer of minutes should be passed on to Jorge Pazos, Director, for the city's web site. His Email address is jpazos@cityofmelrose.org.

Voted: that the secretary reference letters read in the minutes, but that she does not need to type or scan letters into the minutes since they will be in the files.

Invoices:

Voted: to pay the secretary $366.60 for services rendered in May, and $59.22 for office supplies, totaling approx. $420.00

Mt. Hood Enforcement Order

A copy of a letter was passed out to each member from Joseph Lynch, Supt. and Acting City Engineer regarding the Mt. Hood Enforcement Order, Status Report, a bi-weekly summary report dated 6/7/01. The daily field inspection report was also available for review.

Bob: The engineering dept. has had a fly-over of the Mt. Hood area, and the pond area is very distinct from the rest of the area. There is a very large dark image in the new pond, wetlands 1.

Bob: Referring back to the Mt. Hood Enforcement Status Report, read Sections 1 through 6, they have updated it according to the recommendations, fortified the erosion controls. Concerning the drainage piping system, it is still up in the air, they will probably be coming in after the Epsilon and Armstrong reports are in, and they are developing design alternatives for the proposed water feature along the 12th fairway. The fortified erosion controls, the conditions are being checked daily and continue to function as intended. Silt no longer is entering the resource area. The rock retaining wall has acted as a filtered safety berm and we have seen that in wetlands 2 area. Modern Continental has begun to shape the back and side slopes to the baseball playing field adjacent to the ILSF's and the work is in progress. The gravel is on site. They have stopped filing that. It is the gravel that will be put down on the field itself and the loam will be put on top of that as part of the drainage process. Are there any comments regarding the status report?

David: I know both ILSF's 1 & 2 had been invaded, the hay bales were really ineffective. One of them the silt had built up to the point that it was falling over.

Bob: No, they have not done anything in that area at this point, they will be doing remediation work once the project on the field itself is completed.

Nancy: In the daily field inspection reports you have 2 of the pages under the subject ILSF 2, which is the northerly ILSF near where the baseball is going to be. It says this area will be breached while working on the slopes and restored when slopes are finished. Did they think it is okay to keep going in and out of this resource area just because it has already been damaged a little?

Bob: Well it is not just a little. It is one big flood of hillside flooded into the area.

Nancy: I suppose there is no other way that they can stabilize the flood without going through it.

Bob: It didn't look like an ISLF when we started.

David: But that goes back to the original statements that they were not going to come anywhere near that area, and now they have breached it and wrecked it and now they have to go into it to do it.

Paul: There is nothing in the records that gives them permission to do that. It is the violation of the Wetlands Protection. Act.

Nancy: They are in violation of their Order of Conditions. We have given them permission to work in the buffer zone in our Order of Conditions, but we have never given them permission to go into the resource area, which they may or may not be doing, it is hard to tell.

Paul: According to that, they are flouting that.

Nancy: But it sounds like they may not have a full understanding as to what is correct and what isn't. There has been a change of leadership up there.

Bob: Do you want me to inform Mr. Lynch concerning that statement? He will return from vacation on Monday.

Nancy: Yes, I think we need to communicate with Joe Lynch about that, and for the record, the pages I referred to were dated Thursday, May 31 and Monday, June 4. Monday, June 4 refers to the other ILSF.

Paul: And if they would like to do that work without another Cease & Desist Order then they should come to the commission.

Correspondence:

Grant Programs - Toxics Use Reduction Networking 2002.

Stream Advocate, advocating for better river flows and water use, conversation education, etc. They speak of stream teams across the state. They even give hints for conservation and lawn care.

Riverways Newsletter, Spring 2001. This has River Access Site Built by Trout Unlimited, Urban Rivers updates, Fishway Stewardship Update, Adopt a Stream Update, Biodiversity Days 2001, etc., including a series of web site for various topics.

New England Wetlands Plant Inc. booklet on different type of wildflower mixes, erosion control restoration mixes, native warm season grasses, plants, etc.

TEC Associates - Re: Amtrak 2001 Vegetation Control Program. This is the yearly material passed on to us concerning their control of their right of way and their weed control in that area.

Ordinance.com Group: has been publishing the MA Environmental CD rom since 1999. It contains all of the wetland bylaws, regulations, applications forms and checklists, and wetland maps that are available for every municipality in the State of MA. They are in the process of updating the CD rom to be released in the spring. They are asking for complete and accurate current information for our city and town. Municipalities are offered a disc for $59 for research purposes, to compare how other towns are regulating to protect environmental resources. The commission decided not to purchase this disc.

36 Slayton Road Notice of Intent Continuance The following letter was received from Theodore Regnante, Attorney for Regnante, Sterio & Osborne regarding NOI - 36 Slayton Rd., Melrose, MA, James G. Confalone "Would you please continue hearing on the above NOI scheduled for June 7, 2001. This hearing is requested to give us an opportunity to work with Mr. Lynch regarding some of the drainage issues. Would you please notify me of the next scheduled meetings of the Commission."

The secretary will notify Mr. Regnante of the next scheduled meetings.

Bob: I talked with Jeffrey Collins, representative of the Mass Aubodon Society. He will be sending some information and will probably be at our next meeting presenting the results of the Flagg Acres, Knox Memorial Trails, trails improvements and recommendations and interpretative brochures.

City of Melrose/Master Plan Update
A letter was received from Denise Gaffee, Assistant Director,

"As you know, Mayor Patrick Gurerrio has initiated a process to update the city master plan, last updated in 1962. This document will evaluate the existing conditions in the community, identify goals and objectives, and make recommendations for specific items for future implementation. The mayor has assembled a 14-member committee that will meet throughout the year on this process to identify and address issues of importance in the community. One of the specific elements that will be addressed in the master plan is open space, recreation and resource protection. Members of the master plan advisory committee met recently with Ray Blanchard, acting Parks Supt. and toured Mt. Hood Memorial Park & Golf Course to better understand the existing potential uses for this resource. During this tour Ray suggested that we arrange a similar trip to explore the potential for hiking trails at Mt. Hood. This will be a good opportunity to educate the master plan committee about the current issues and existing conditions with regard to open space and conservation and discuss your suggestions for protecting and enhancing the conservation land in Melrose. Members of the committee are available to meet with the representatives of the Conservation Commission on Sat., June 16 or Sat., June 23. Please discuss this at your June 7 meeting and contact me.

Bob: Who would be interested in doing the tour of Swains Pond and the Knox Memorial Trail with the master plan advisory committee?

Paul, Nancy and Bob, plan to meet on June 23 at 8:30 a.m. with the master plan advisory committee.

Bob: I was expecting an engineer this evening for the Pine Banks Park Project regarding the rugby or soccer field they intend to develop.

Nancy: We should share with them the aerial photos that were brought in last week which show the Pine Banks area historically.

David: Where do they plan to put it, is it on the area that is the old land fill that side off of Sylvan St.?

Bob: That is correct. One question I had "is there any trees there on the site?" He said "yes, anywhere from 3 to 5". I asked him if they were going to cut them down and he said yes. I asked if he was going to plant any more and he said no. I said I would recommend to you to at least plant some trees. He asked what the ratio was. I responded for every one you take down, you plant two. They haven't come back since, so I don't know what happened.

Forestdale Cemetery Situation Bob: There is another situation that developed at the Forestdale Cemetery on the Malden side. It seems there is a filling operation going on headed towards the wetlands area on the Malden side. One of my co-workers at work runs through the cemetery in the morning and noticed bulldozers moving dirt and the dirt they take out of the cemetery, they stockpile it there and then they put the dirt back in once they finish and it settles below, but if it doesn't settle they keep piling it up. I guess it piled up so high they were starting to spread it out and it was moving into the wetland area and it is interesting when you look at the topo map, there is a little peninsula that goes out and there is a narrow channel that keeps the water flowing and if they block up that channel it will be moving into Melrose. He was going to a meeting tonight in Malden to see how that is going. So there are two situations going on at Pine Banks in the Forestdale Cemetery area.

Bob: A newspaper article was delivered to me last meeting regarding the aspects of putting fines against individuals who actually have flouted the local commission. We have no fines at this point since we have no bylaws. Does the state regulations give us the right to fine these people? I believe it has to be in the bylaws.

Bob: The last item on the agenda is regarding the budget. A month ago I came to you with a budget of $51,815 I presented to the mayor for our upcoming fiscal year 2002. The City of Melrose, year 2002, budget analysis for the conversation commission is recommended at $23,770. The fiscal 2001 was $25,810 and that is where it stands.

Nancy: What got cut?

Bob: Professional services. The guardrail of $13,000, the fish docking, that is close to $15,500 right there. Surveying conservation land is another $6,000. Those were 3 big items that were cut. I will be presenting this at the Aldermen's meeting Tuesday night.

Adjacent to the wetland at Spot Pond Brook/Behind the houses at Baxter Rd./Downstream from Conant Park Nancy: As a follow up to the 5 well rusted drums I mentioned at the last meeting, I brought them to the attention of Joe Lynch. He followed up on that and determined that, in fact, the city does own that property. It was gifted to the city last December. He went out there with the Hazmat team from the Melrose Fire Dept. with equipment to detect any gasoline or hazard materials and didn't find anything and it is their opinion it does not impose any imminent threats to either the public or the environment and it would be the wisest course to wait until late fall when the ground will be harder and the foliage will be less difficult to break through and I would agree with them. When I inspected the site it didn't seem like anything was in the drums or coming out of the drums and it would be really difficult to get in there without causing a lot of damage to the vegetation this time of year. Are there any comments?

Bob: I was just wondering if the land was transferred to the conservation commission without us knowing about it.

Nancy: I don't know. You could talk to Joe Monday and add that to your list of questions. I only know that Joe said "we are the owner", meaning we the city and the property "was given to the city last December". The wetland goes right up next to it. I am sure it is land designated for conservation one way or the other. Whether that formal transfer has been made, I don't know.

Peter: We have jurisdiction over it.

Nancy: Yes, we definitely have jurisdiction over it. I think what we need to do it reiterate that any removal actions that they do will be within the buffer zone, so they should notify us before and let us know what their plan is.

Voted: To adjourn at 8:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy Pritchard
Secretary